Ukraine and the Empire of Capital: From Marketisation to Armed Conflict

288 Pages·2017·3.41 MB·English

by  Yuliya Yurchenko

Ukraine and the Empire of Capital
Ukraine and the Empire of Capital
From Marketisation to Armed Conflict
Yuliya Yurchenko
First published 2018 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Yuliya Yurchenko 2018
The right of Yuliya Yurchenko to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3738 8 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3737 1 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0181 4 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0183 8 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0182 1 EPUB eBook

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest
sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental
standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom
and United States of America
To the victims of capital
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Map of Ukraine
1. Per aspera ad nebulae or to market through a hybrid civil war: survival
myths of systemic failure
2. Capitalist antecedents in the late USSR
3. Social destruction and kleptocratic construction of the early 1990s
4. Class formation and social fragmentation
5. Neoliberal kleptocracy, FDI and transnational capital
6. ‘Two Ukraines’, One ‘Family’, and geopolitical crossroads
7. The Bloody Winter and the ‘Gates of Europe’
8. Geopolitics, the elusive ‘Other’, and the nebulous telos of Europe
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Figures and Tables
FIGURES
4.1 The ‘coking coal–coke–metal’ and ‘thermal coal–power–metal’ commodity
chains
4.2 Results of the parliamentary elections of 2002: parties with percentage of
votes and parliamentary seats allocation
4.3 Network visualisation of SOEs privatised in 2003 and 2004 and
companies/oligarchs who became their owners
5.1 Interlocking company membership in the global policy groups and the
foreign business lobby and interest groups’ in Ukraine
5.2 Top 500 corporations in the policy groups in Ukraine (the latter dataset was
last updated by the author in December 2010
5.3 ERT members’ companies representation in the EU and US lobby groups in
Ukraine
5.4 Company membership interlocks among four foreign policy groups in
Ukraine
6.1 Largest mass media outlet (television channels, newspapers and radio
stations) ownership in Ukraine by oligarchs and FIGs
6.2 The most influential political, economic and public persons interlocks of
1990–1996, 2003, 2004 and 2005
6.3 Parliamentary elections 2006 results and seat allocation
6.4 Parties and factions in the Verkhovna Rada per number of allocated seats
after elections of 2007
6.5 Interlocks of the most influential people of Ukraine 1990–1996, 2010 and
2011
6.6 The dynamic of interlocks among the most influential people of Ukraine
ratings, 1990–2011
6.7 Top 100 companies in Ukraine’s market (2010) as per type and country of
ownership
6.8 Ukrainian business groups’ corporate clusters share in Top 100 by numbers
(2010)
7.1 State debt accumulation dynamic, billion dollars
7.2 Consolidated budget indicators, 2011–2016, UAH million
7.3 Gini, unemployment, and (hidden) income disproportionality, percentage;
1992–2015
8.1 Geographic structure of exports (goods), 1996–2016
8.2 Geographic structure of imports (goods), 1996–2016
TABLES
3.1 Murder cases associated with economic activity in Donetsk in the 1990s
4.1 Three main blocks of forces competing in the parliamentary elections 2002
4.2 The largest SEOs privatised in 2003–2004
5.1 Major investor subsidies in Special Economic Zones in Ukraine;
established 1998–2000
6.1 Political parties’ preferences in 2003–2004
6.2 Gas distribution SOEs privatised in August–October 2012
8.1 Geographic structure of exports (goods), 1996–2016
8.2 Geographic structure of imports (goods), 1996–2016
Abbreviations
ACC American Chamber of Commerce
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union
CSTO Collective Security Treaty Organization
CUSUR Centre for US–Ukraine Relations
DCFTA Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas
EBA European Business Association
EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ERT European Round Table of Industrialists
ETG Eural Trans Gas
FDI Foreign direct investment
FIGs Financial industrial groups
ICC International Chamber of Commerce
IFIs international financial institutions
IMF International Monetary Fund ISD Industrial Union of Donbass
(Індустріальний союз Донбасу)
JSCs Joint Stock Companies
KIIS Kyiv International Institute of Sociology
Maidan Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), the main square of
Kiev
maidan social movements associated with the Orange Revolution and the
Bloody winter
NDP (Narodno-Democratychna Party) People’s Democratic Party
NRU (Narodnyy Rukh Ukrayiny) People’s Movement of Ukraine
PDAs Priority Development Areas
PIIGS Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain
SALs Structural adjustment loans
SAPs Structural adjustment programmes
SAPs Structural adjustment programmes
SCM System Capital Management
SDPU(U) Social-Democratic Party (United)
SEZs Special Economic Zones
SOEs State-owned enterprises
SSR Soviet Socialist Republic
UAH Ukrainian Hryvnia – the currency of Ukraine
URPP Ukrainian Union of Industrialist and Entrepreneurs
USUBC US–Ukraine Business Council
WB World Bank
WIDER The World Institute for Development Economic Research
WTO World Trade Organization
YeESU United Energy Systems of Ukraine (Yedyni Energetychni Systemy
Ukrayiny)
YES Yalta European Strategy